The invention relates to opening and cleaning machines for textile fibers.
A fiber opening machine is known consisting of a feeding device, a drawing-in system, at least one opening drum trimmed with saw teeth, possibly cleaning elements, and a removal device. This removal device can be a brushing roller, a sieve drum, or more conventionally a suction hood. These suction hoods have been known for generations and consist either of an extension, assigned to the opening drum, in which the fibers are centrifuged, or of a metal sheet that is arranged near the opening drum. This metal sheet is intended to increase the air speed between opening drum and metal sheet such that the fibers are drawn off of the drum set by an air current which is faster than the circumferential speed of the drum.
The circumferential speeds of the drum and the drum widths have recently been greatly increased, so that the removal of the fibers from the sets has become more difficult. European Patent Application No. 0,108,229 proposes a special embodiment of the drum screening after the point of detachment. Because of its complicated embodiment, this proposal has not been widely applied.